Saturday, September 11, 2010

Ducks, horses, sheep, goats, lambs, kids and cameras

The first thing to happen in a somewhat busy and very interesting day was Cynthia telephoning to congratulate me. Huh? I had a photo published as 'pic of the week' in the Timaru Herald. Yay!! Nick and the boys took a quick walk to the BP garage across the road to buy a copy. While I was washing the breakfast dishes I noticed that the sky was filled with bands of cloud diffusing the soft morning light, so we hurried off to the northern wetlands with our cameras. I discovered that my hiking boots are completely unwaterproof and had very squelchy socks after not too long. Couldn't stay too long as we needed to be at Rachel's Riding School at 10.30 to take some group photos of the Otipua Pony Club for the paper. Stuck around to watch a bit of the action as well as the girls had a lesson with Rachel in preparation for a big competition in Invercargill. While down in the paddock area I wandered over to see a new-born kiddie...he had just been born that morning and was still stringy and bloody, flopping around on his little stick legs and trying to figure out how they worked. It's truly amazing how the animals just get on with the birthing process by themselves - no waddling around before-hand and complaining about being fat or not seeing toes; no cursing husbands and huffing and puffing during birth, and certainly no languishing in hospital beds during recovery! Meanwhile, Matt had enlisted the boys to help with filling in potholes in the driveway so they were gainfully employed and out of trouble (sort of). We took rolls and franks for lunch, then stayed for the rest of the day and helped with some farm duties; I got to feed the pet lambs and herd sheep - pretty exciting stuff for a city girl! In the afternoon Nick, Rachel and I took a short photo walk along part of the wetlands creek but grey skies were not fun. Back to the farmhouse for tea - we were treated to KFC, pizza and chips. Yum!

No comments: